


The Warmest Part of Winter

by timeforsomethrillingheroics



Category: The New Legends of Monkey (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Set directly after the end of S1, poor communication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 06:07:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15551331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timeforsomethrillingheroics/pseuds/timeforsomethrillingheroics
Summary: It wasn’t awful, Tripitaka decided. Holding Monkeys hand.





	The Warmest Part of Winter

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired by the Voxtrot song '[The Warmest Part of the Winter.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CkzulICxL8)'

“A team of horses cannot overtake a word that has left the mouth.”  
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey

\--- 

The night after Tripitaka imprisoned Davari was spent in the small basement of a kind shopkeepers home.

Tripitaka didn’t know him but Monkey and Pigsy did and that was enough for her; even if sleeping on an uncomfortable stone floor wasn’t exactly how she had imagined things going for their small band after taking the first big step toward ridding the world of demon kind.

Really, it was all those tales she had read at Scholars fault she was in this predicament Tripitaka had thought as she eyed the weirdly shaped package that was balanced almost directly above her head.

They never mentioned blankets that smelled or how hard it was to get comfortable without a pillow. Which was quite unfair of them, she decided.

Real quests were bound to lead to disappointment if no one ever bothered to tell you how much you’d be using leaves as toilet paper.

Tripitaka had spent a couple of minutes after saying goodnight to her traveling companions wanting to ask if the large piles of boxes that surrounded them looked unstable to anyone else. 

She didn't like the way they were leaning haphazardly against the wall of the room. But when she finally decided to roll over and open her mouth, everyone else was sleeping peacefully. 

Monkey had sprawled himself out as wide as he would go, his blanket covering only half of his torso. Tripitaka noticed with fondness that his arms were stuck out at odd angles so his palms could lace comfortably behind his head. 

Pigsy looked like a mummy in the dim light; everything but his nose was covered in sheets. 

Sandy had scootched herself into a corner, her back touching the wall. She had made herself smaller than Tripitaka would have guessed her willowy frame would have allowed and her arms were tucked firmly underneath her, as if she was scared she’d be stepped on if she took up too much room on the floor.

Tripitaka had ended up looking at each of her friends for a moment with a small smile on her lips, feeling something well up in her chest that seemed suspiciously like belonging before deciding not to say anything after all.

Their small band had spent much of the earlier evening with the shopkeepers family, stumbling down the long, winding street that lead from the Jade Mountain to his shop punch drunk with victory. It made Tripitaka light inside when she thought about it.

As the group had made their slow descent into the village proper they ended up having to weave between a couple of tired villagers, woken by the noise of a horde of angry demons fleeing the monastery.

Those of the demons number that could travel with speed had, their disembodied forms howling like wild animals as they moved through the air. Lesser demons had followed soon after, barreling through anything that got in their way with quick, angry steps and red eyes that seemed to bleed into the night, looking for a place to lick their wounds and soothe their pride. 

When Tripitaka had finally exited the Jade Mountain earlier that night, she had done so knowing there would be nothing that could harm them left in the village come sunrise.

The group had spent much of their walk laughing loudly; their voices echoing against the cobblestoned street. 

Monkey had wanted to chase after all of them of course. 

Even after Tripitaka had convinced him everyone else was exhausted he hadn’t stopped twirling Nyoi Bo between his fingers until Sandy yawned pointedly and said “I don’t know about you, but **some** of us could use a good night's rest before we start the second leg of our journey.”

Earlier, when the door to the shop had finally been opened, Monkey had been the first to hop down the rickety stairs to the bottom landing. His feet had barely touched the floor on the way down. 

After everything he hadn’t seemed to be able to sit still. 

“Being quiet is for the old and decrepit. I am neither,” Monkey had tartly replied when Pigsys groused he couldn’t sleep with all the noise. 

It hadn’t been ten minutes later, much to Tripitakas amusement, when she looked over to her left and found Monkey with his eyes closed and chest rising slowly up and down. 

He had been the one to carry Tripitaka down the monastery steps, bouncing her on his shoulders, laughing as Pigsy puffed to keep up and Sandy trailed behind with a small smile on her face, looking at his antics with the wide eyed wonder she so often displayed at something unexpected. 

Monkey’s cloud was long gone at that point, back to where ever it stayed in the sky and nothing he did seemed to make it inclined to return again. 

Monkey had taken this like he took everything that didn’t quite go his way. 

He promptly pretended he had never been trying to call it back in the first place.

“Monk one, Davari zero” Monkey had chanted with the two small boys Tripitaka still didn’t know the names of as they made their way down the street. Each of them punctuated Davaris name by spitting to the side. Sandy and Pigsy had eventually joined in. Monkeys laughter was contagious and it was late enough that things had started to seem sillier than they really were. 

Tripitaka had been content to rest her chin against the top of Monkeys head and listen to the five of them. She was still a little shell shocked from her earlier fall, but his hair smelled nice (not that she would ever admit it) and she liked the way her body swayed along with his cheerful steps.

But after, in the shop entrance when he set her down, spinning her in a tight circle like you would with a small child before letting her feet touch the floor, his whole body had stiffened. He’d gone to hug her at the end and instead jerked back and awkwardly put up a hand to pat her shoulder in two quick motions, just like the time he visited her when she had been captured, his eyebrows raised in forced nonchalance.

So instead of thinking about the next scroll while she was wrapped in her blanket roll, waiting for sleep to claim her after a very long and scary day, her thoughts drifted to too tall boxes, an awkward pat and how Monkey knew she was a girl now.

“He’s going to make this weird,” was the last glum thought Tripitaka had before she finally drifted off to sleep.

\--- 

And, of course, he did.

\--- 

For the first week of their journey, everything seemed normal. Or as normal as things could be when you chose to travel with three Gods, one of which who had spent most of her life in a sewer.

Monkey said he knew exactly where the next scroll was, which was a huge relief to everyone after the Monkey clan disaster -- even if he was a little cagey about the precise location. When one of them asked, he simply pointed to a mountain just visible on the horizon and said “There.” 

Unfortunately, things got a little fuzzy any time someone wanted to know where exactly on the mountain they needed to look. 

Monkey repeatedly saying 'I’ll know it when I see it' didn't give Tripitaka much confidence, but there really wasn’t much she could do. 

They’d either find the scroll or they wouldn’t. 

Being angry at Monkey wouldn’t make the trip go quicker.

By now all of them were used to walking. Pigsy still complained about his pack, but he didn’t wheeze when they kept going for more than an hour and his calves had become dense with muscle under his customary layer of fat. 

Tripitaka actually enjoyed traveling this time around. It came as a surprise at first, but the more she thought about it the more sense it made. She had suffered through their trip through the desert because she had constantly been afraid her true gender would be discovered. And more importantly, she had lacked choice. She couldn’t swim when she wanted to. She couldn’t chose to strip down to her under shirt when her back was soaked with sweat. So many things that the others did without thinking hadn’t been an option for her.

These days she felt much more sure of herself. Now that she didn’t have to hide who she was, it was freeing to travel in boys clothes with her hair cut short. There was nothing to stick to her forehead and her loose clothing made it easier to scramble up the overgrown trail while still giving her some air flow. She could do exactly what she wanted. She got to be who she was. No more and no less.

So with her new found freedom in mind, it wasn’t long before she decided to start practicing the skills she learned while locked in the monastery by Divari. Because she could. Because she was probably going to need them again before their quest was over. And because they had made her feel powerful, she admitted privately to herself. For a moment, her hands had been more than just her hands. They had been a weapon. A force of nature she could control. She wanted to see what else her body could do.

Unfortunately, this was where things had started their slow descent down hill. 

Apparently, Tripitaka was awful at fighting. Or, that was her best guess anyway. She hadn’t felt so bad back in the Jade Mountain but she couldn’t think of anything else that would make Monkey squint angrily at her like that, his eyebrows making a creeping caterpillar over his forehead. Somehow, she had to be dishonoring the whole of martial arts. _Somehow._

She’d never taken Monkey as someone who held things sacred, but she really didn’t have another explanation for the way his shoulders would hunch and his lips would curl down into a small frown every time she’d start exercising. 

He’d look at her slowly practicing by the fire every night, huff and then look away again to either go to tend the fire (badly) or flop down on the ground in an exaggerated lump, sighing dramatically. 

When no one asked him what was wrong, he’d sit up again, haughtily stare at each of them and then immediately pretend he had no idea why they were giving him concerned looks in return. 

It took almost two weeks of this for Tripitaka to reach her breaking point. 

That particular night it was Sandy’s turn to make dinner, so Tripitaka took her customary stance by the fire. She was part way through her first kata when she heard a loud thump and a passive aggressive sigh behind her. To her right she saw Pigsy roll his eyes before looking back down at the sock he was darning.

Tripitaka moved to her next form. 

There was a louder sigh.

She moved to the one after that.

The next thing she knew, there was a loud crash and then Sandy was angrily hissing if Monkey couldn’t keep his eyes to himself he wasn’t allowed near the cooking pot.

Tripitaka stopped with an exasperated noise of her own.

“If I’m so bad at this, just say something,” she said, turning.

Monkey looked up from the large pot he had tripped over. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he huffed.

Sandy stared stonily down, crossing her arms and looking at the seeping puddle of stew he had made. 

“Right,” Tripitaka replied, rolling her eyes and turning back around.

“Someone else has to make dinner,” Sandy said to no one in particular. “I already did my turn. Not my fault it got spilled all over.”

“Fine,” Monkey said after a pregnant pause, studiously not looking at any of them.

Tripitaka and Pigsy winced in unison. No one liked Monkeys cooking.

After everyone agreed Monkey should make soup (because of how hard it was to ruin) a peaceful silence fell over the camp. All Tripitaka could hear between her slow, even breaths were the soft impacts of her feet hitting hard packed dirt, the pops of the fire and Pigsy’s intermittent curse as his needle found thumb instead of the soft fabric of his sock. 'Finally,' she thought to herself. Of course, just as she had returned to proper form a petulant voice cut into the night, saying “You could have at least **asked** if I wanted to practice with you.”

“What?” Tripitaka asked, completely flabbergasted. She had to lower the leg that had been paused mid kick before turning to face Monkey fully.

She’d never seen Monkey practice anything. He just did. He didn’t practice motion, he was motion. 

“It’s polite,” Monkey insisted testily. 

Tripitaka stood for a second, dumbfounded before saying “...Would you like to practice with me Monkey?”

“Not tonight,” he grinned, suddenly friendly again, grabbing his bed roll and tossing it over his head like a poncho before settling on a log across from her.

“Okay then,” Tripitaka replied cautiously.

Whatever that had been about, she thought as she watched Monkey start to haphazardly chop roots, she hoped that was the end of it.

\--- 

Tripitaka should have known better.

Now every time she practiced Monkey was there, smacking her stomach and telling her to straighten her back. Or worse, hovering over her shoulder. It looked like he wanted to correct her form somehow, but also would immediately break into hives if he managed to actually touch her. So he’d stand uncomfortably, trying to point at where her arms should go, or how far apart her feet should spread. It was comical at first, but grew old quickly. And worst of all, she had been the one to ask if he wanted to join in. So it was her own fault she was in this predicament in the first place.

Sometimes he’d go to ruffle her hair, only to pull back immediately as if her soft stubble had somehow burned his skin.

Tripitaka didn’t understand it.

“You’re weird,” Tripitaka said after what felt like the hundredth time Monkey awkwardly patted her shoulder when she got a move right.

“I’m awesome,” Monkey replied self assuredly. “Everyone knows so.”

“No, I’m pretty sure everyone knows you’re weird.”

Monkey didn’t dignify that with a reply.

\--- 

The strangeness didn’t stop there.

One day as they were walking, when Pigsy and Sandy were off gathering mushrooms in the dense underbrush that spread on either side of the trail, Monkey stopped dead in his tracks, causing Tripitaka to run head first into his back. “You held my hand!” he exclaimed loudly, whirling around so his chest almost crashed into Tripitakas face. 

“What?” Tripitaka asked distractedly, taking a step back and bringing her hand up to tenderly feel her nose.

“With the Shaman, when I fell asleep. You held my hand!” Monkey continued, face indignant.

“Who?” asked Tripitaka, using the tips of her fingers to try and feel if anything had been broken.

“The jerk with the weird white bubble thing. And the writing.”

“Ah,” Tripitaka hedged, thinking back to that awful room and the way Monkeys eyes had rolled back into his head and his forehead had been slick with sweat.

“Not that I care about writing,” Monkey added haughty.

“Hm,” she replied not following Monkeys train of thought at all. “I guess I did, didn’t I.”

“Yes. You did,” Monkey said, almost proudly.

Tripitaka immediately grew suspicious. 

“So?” She asked. 

“So…. you held my hand!” Monkey repeated, his eyebrows doing their funny wiggle thing Tripitaka still hadn’t figured out.

“I already said I did,” Tripitaka replied, growing defensive. “Plenty of friends hold each others hands. Especially when they’re worried about one another.”

“Huh,” Monkey said, his head tilting like it did when he was thinking hard.

“As riveting as this conversation is, we should probably keep moving,” Tripitaka finally bit out, as it looked like Monkey would have been fine with standing there staring into the distance for a while. 

She gestured pointedly to the trail that wound ahead of them for good measure.

“Right,” Monkey agreed, practically jumping in his haste to turn around. 

“But you **did** hold my hand,” he added rebelliously a moment later under his breath as they started to move forward again.

Tripitaka decided not to bother asking what in the world had gotten into him. She had no idea how his mind worked sometimes.

\--- 

It wasn’t long before Monkey started angrily grabbing her hand as they were walking, being very careful to not let himself touch any other part of her body. Any time Tripitaka started to bring it up Monkey would loudly exclaim “FRIENDS HOLD HANDS ALL THE TIME, YOU TOLD ME SO.”

Tripitaka could hear Pigsy snickering behind them, but she couldn’t quite work out how turn enough to kick him in the shin with the lock Monkey had on her palm.

“Pigsy’s your friend too. Why don’t you go hold his hand,” Tripitaka finally said with a look of desperation over her shoulder. 

Unfortunately, Pigsy just laughed harder as Monkey stuck his nose in the air and tightened his grip.

When her hand finally started to go numb she just sighed and silently held out the other one for Monkey to take.

\--- 

It wasn’t awful, Tripitaka decided. Holding Monkeys hand. Actually, it was kind of nice, in a weird way. Once she got used to it. His hand was warm and callused and he had started doing that stupid pat thing less and less. She couldn’t tell for sure if the two things were related, but her gut said they were.

As they moved further up the mountain and the days started to grow longer, the hand that wasn’t in Monkeys often ended up feeling cold. 

Sandy saw her shivering one morning and knitted her a pair of gloves. Monkey eyed them disdainfully before shoving one of them in Pigsys travel pack. 

“They itch,” he said, even though Tripitaka hadn’t asked.

\--- 

As they went further up the mountain, they started to train more and more. Complicated patterns that almost looked like a dance.

Sometimes in the firelight when Monkey wasn’t looking at her, she could admit he was handsome. With his hair dripping with sweat and his shirt off despite the chill in the air. But then he’d look back and catch her eye and he’d be Monkey again. There would be a self satisfied smirk on his lips at a move particularly well pulled off and his eyes would crinkle in a way that made Tripitaka want to smile with him and push him to the ground for feeling so big headed at the same time and she suddenly had no idea what she had been thinking. 

With his attitude, no one in their right mind would find Monkey attractive.

\--- 

One night, when Sandy and Pigsy were already asleep Monkey turned to Tripitaka in his bedroll and said “You know, I used to think you were littler. Before I knew you were a girl.”

‘It’s not like I’ve grown any since you’ve known me,” Tripitaka countered, too tired to be confused by another seemly random thought in Monkeys head.

“No I mean... young. I thought you were young. Like you hadn't grown up all the way yet. How you people do.”

“I’m bad at telling ages,” he finally offered at Tripitakas quirked eyebrow. “You’re young then suddenly you’re old. The years in between get a little… fuzzy.”

“Gods don’t grow up?” Tripitaka asked, tired but curious.

“That’s not the point,” Monkey dismissed.

“Well what is?” Tripitaka replied sensibly. She was fairly sure in the vision they had shared someone had mentioned Monkey as a child but she decided not to bring it up. She got the idea it was a sore subject.

“I don’t know,” Monkey said, his eyes hovering past her shoulder, telling her that really, he did know, and he didn’t want to talk about it.

“You aren’t as young as I thought,” Monkey finally admitted, still looking into the forest.

“I’m pretty young compared to you,” Tripitaka said with a yawn.

Monkey made a face like he’d tasted a lemon. 

“What?” Tripitaka asked. “It’s not like we can all live to be thousands of years old. Don’t be mad. I’m sure in god years you’re practically a teenager.”

“And I’ll live for thousands more after you’ve died of old age,” Monkey said quietly, looking more serious than Tripitaka thought was possible for him.

“Well, yeah,” Tripitaka acknowledged, nonplussed by how sad he looked. “Isn’t that kind of the point? It’s in the name. Mortals are well, mortal. We live, we die, we get reincarnated into something else to try again. Gods are, you know... Gods. ” She made a vague hand gesture, trying to encompass all her thoughts on what exactly being a God entailed.

Monkey huffed and didn’t say anything further.

But as Tripitaka was drifting off to sleep, she thought felt a warm hand sneak over and curl around her wrist as if to count her pulse. 

The next morning Monkeys bedroll was empty by the time Tripitaka woke up and she told herself she must have imagined it.

\--- 

“You’re sexist,” Tripitaka said flatly one cold morning about an three hours into their daily trek.

“I am not!” Monkey retorted, looking insulted. “In fact, I don’t even I know what that means,” he continued, sticking his chin in the air. “But knowing you, probably something offensive.”

Tripitaka sighed and rolled her eyes. “Well why haven’t you asked Pigsy if he wants to be carried over the river then?” she asked with forced patience. 

She didn’t bother mentioning the half a dozen other ways Monkey had singled her out for special treatment over the last month. She felt they were implied.

“I haven’t asked Sandy either!” Monkey hotly replied.

“Good point,” Sandy chimed in. “Why **haven’t** you asked me if I want to be carried.”

“Sandy, you control water,” Tripitaka said slowly. “And you can teleport.”

“Ah, yes. I forgot,” Sandy replied, smiling suddenly before zipping to the other side of the creek.

Some days Tripitaka didn’t know why she bothered.

“...Why don’t we all take a break and go for a short swim instead, yeah?” Pigsy offered slowly, looking back and forth between the proverbial sparks Monkey and Tripitakas angry glares were spitting out.

Monkey took a second to think about it before he shrugged and lopped off his shirt. 

“Good idea,” Sandy called from the other side of the river bank. 

Tripitaka looked at the three Gods unabashedly stripping down to their underclothes and hopping into the water one by one before she decided she’d better brave the murky depths also. Even with the cool mountain air she knew her skin had started to stink. She tossed her shoes and the rest of her outerwear over a small tree branch that leaned out over the slowly moving current. She hadn’t felt self conscious in a long time. Thinking back of the time’s she hadn’t been able to swim with the rest of them, Tripitaka smiled. Things sure had changed over the year they’d all known each other.

“The water’s warm,” Tripitaka exclaimed in surprise as she stuck one of her toes in.

“Natural hot spring,” Monkey said smugly, like it was something everyone should know. “I passed it last time I was here. Hah! I told you we were going the right way.”

Tripitaka bent down and noticed a small amount of steam rising from the waters surface for the first time.

She felt her face break out into a wide grin before she took two giant steps back and then a running hurdle forward, curling her legs against her abdomen and taking the few second she was airborne to yell out “Cannonball!” 

She surfaced just in time to see the giant rippling wave of displaced water she had created splash into all three of the Gods.

Monkey and Pigsy converged on her immediately, laughing and dunking her head under water and then splashing her as she came back up again. Sandy chose to float in the center of the river peacefully, either unaware of or ignoring the racket they were making. Pigsy gave up trying to push Tripitaka underwater after she wiggled out of his ankle hold, her foot clipping his chin in the process. Monkey took a kick to the stomach in stride but quickly abandoned ship as Tripitakas fingers found purchase in his long hair.

‘Not a bad way to spend a day,’ Tripitaka thought to herself as she let the current push her to where Sandy was floating with her eyes closed. They must be close to the next scroll by now she thought contentedly, a couple hours detour wouldn’t kill anyone.

Tripitaka had no idea why she was surprised when not ten minutes later, halfway through a lazy backstroke a pair of strong, webbed hands grabbed her around the middle and sucked her under water. They hadn’t run into a demon for almost an entire month. She should have known it was only a matter of time.

Unfortunately, due to being caught by surprise, Tripitaka sucked in a large portion water on the way down. She could feel her lungs burn with it. She coughed reflexively but when she did, more water pushed its way down her throat. She clamped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes seared as she opened them and violently kicked downward, trying to dislodge the long, scale-covered creature whose teeth had buried themselves in her side. Her first kick was the strongest, causing the thing to be pushed backwards, it’s teeth sliding down her ribs before catching again in the tender dip above her hip bone. Each kick after the first was progressively weaker. She let go of her mouth and used her hands like tiny hammers against the hard plating of it’s skull. When that didn’t work she tired to poke out its eyes. Unfortunately for her, the thing didn’t seem to have any.

The last thing she remembered before warm sunlight found her face again was sinking into the soft mud of the bottom. How it squelched up her back and between her toes, and how the things tail had wrapped her body impossibly tight, making her expel the last of the air left in her lungs.

The next thing Tripitaka saw was Monkey and Pigsys worried faces above her as Sandy drew the water she had inhaled explosively from her throat. She jerked up with a hacking cough, her body expelling the last of the liquid in her lungs. Her nose and mouth burned with the effort, and her eyes watered uncontrollably. Gasping, she looked around frantically before flopping back to the rocky bank.

“What **was** that?” she ground out, her throat feeling like sandpaper. Monkey almost didn’t wait for her to finish before he was surging forward. She could see him as if in slow motion, reaching down and frantically crushing her against his chest. She could feel him bury his nose in her short hair but was too dumb-founded to say anything at first. Her side throbbed, but it was nice to know she was appreciated.

“Dead,” he replied simply.

That was all well and good, Tripitaka thought, but it didn’t really answer her question.

Eventually she wheezed “I can’t breathe,” when it became clear Monkey wasn’t planning on letting go any time soon.

She let out a small sigh of relief as Monkey pulled back a fraction and she could inhale again. Then he leaned down like it was the most natural thing in the world and kissed her and the world skipped a beat. 

‘This is nothing like before,’ she thought dazedly as his teeth dragged on her bottom lip, remembering their first meeting. Then her mouth opened and his tongue found its way inside and she stopped thinking much at all.

It took Sandy clearing her throat loudly a couple of times for them to remember where they were and for Monkey to reluctantly pull back. When she caught his gaze, he managed to look somehow both defiant and sheepish at the same time.

“What was _that_?” Tripitaka asked again in a dumbfounded voice when her head had cleared enough to think of the question.

“I like you,” Monkey declared simply. And then immediately ruined it by adding “You complete moron.” As he talked he put his forehead to hers and breathed deeply. “Also, I was pretty sure you were really gone this time.”

“Oh,” she said in a small voice when he finally pulled back.

“And people say I’m an idiot.”

For once, Tripitaka found she didn’t mind the fond eye roll Monkey gave her.

**Author's Note:**

> Finished TNLOM less than a week ago, immediately went here to devour fic and found out that there were only 18 (18! for the whole show!) things written. Trying to be the change I want to see in the world and contribute to this tiny fandom. Because Monkey and Tripitaka deserve it.
> 
> Comments and critiques are welcome and encouraged! This story is unbetaed so please feel free to point out any mistakes you find.
> 
> If you would like to send me more fic ideas, talk in depth about the show in general or would be willing to beta read for future Monkey King stories I have planned please shoot me a message over on my newly set up [writing tumblr](https://cassieswritingblog.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
